Canucks general manager Mike Gillis made his weekly appearance Thursday on the club’s flagship radio station TEAM 1040 and said injured defenceman Alex Edler (back) is “doing well” while Jason Garrison (groin) does not have a sports hernia.

Edler and Garrison both became subjects of curiosity last week when fellow Canuck Kevin Bieksa mentioned they were “unhealthy” and wouldn’t be playing in his charity game. Gillis later revealed Edler and Garrison were being treated for issues that arose prior to the month-old work stoppage. That meant the two were not locked out and would be paid and treated by the team until deemed fit to play.

Edler was reassessed this week, according to Gillis.

“It went went,” said the GM. “Alex is doing well. He’s been put through some really hard workouts over this past week and he’s progressed really nicely so we’re hopeful that we won’t have an issue moving forward.

“With Jason, we’ve ruled out the possibility he has a sports hernia. But it’s kind of like he feels like he’s at 80 or 85 per cent all the time and getting that extra 10-15 per cent has been challenging for him a little bit. There have been some strides made and he is feeling better. It’s a difficult injury to diagnose and handle and we’ll see how he does over the next week or so and then make some decisions.”

Gillis also rejected a suggestion by Sportsnet insider John Shannon that he is close to a deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs for out-going netminder Roberto Luongo.

“The definition of ‘close’ is something that is different for everybody,” Gillis explained. “I’m not sure why John would say that because that’s certainly not the case. Everyone is entitled to speculate on whatever they’d like to speculate on. We’ve moved very slowly on any discussions with Roberto. We’ll trade him when we get what we want to get for him or we won’t trade him. Either way is fine with me.

“If we can do something that is going to help us and moves our team forward in different areas, we’re certainly going to consider it. But that hasn’t occurred yet so I’m not quite sure why that would be said.”

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